An offering to the respected fire and to the ancestors: Honouring the lives of those who came before us By Javier Every March 13th, in the area called Pak’oxom in the community of Río Negro, community members, students, activists, spiritual leaders known as Ajq’ijab’, and elders gather to commemorate the [...]
Río Negro Presente: Honouring the lives of family members lost at the hands of the state By: Cristina Jerez, Rabinal Community Legal Clinic Intern On March 13 1982, the Guatemalan army and Civil Defense Patrollers (PAC) murdered 177 innocent people from the community of Río Negro. 43 years later, the [...]
We remember so that it does not happen again By: Cristina Jerez, Rabinal Community Legal Clinic Intern In February 1982, a group of armed men set fire to the market in Xococ and killed five people. The Guatemalan army associated this event with the guerrilla and the community of [...]
By: Romi Fischer-Schmidt, New Hope Foundation Cooperant Cooperant Update: Impunity is a Canadian issue, too: Remembering Adolfo Ich Chamán’s death for resisting a Canadian mine in Guatemala BTS Cooperant, Romi and Styvens Barrios perform in a cello-guitar duo at Adolfo Ich Chamán’s 15th annual commemoration at the Barrio La [...]
Artistic call-and-response, Guatemala-Canada: BTS at Antigonight By: Janette Fecteau, BTS Antigonish Committee member; Romi Fischer-Schmidt, New Hope Foundation Cooperant; and Ally Lord, New Hope Foundation Intern Saturday, September 14: Antigonight Art After Dark Festival in Antigonish/Nalikitquniejk unfolds, starring a spectacular installation exhibiting a months-long call-and-response between local and Maya Achí [...]
By: Mélisande Séguin, Campesino Committee of the Highlands cooperant Cooperant Update: Protected Areas in Guatemala: A Conservation Project that Only Conserves Elite Economic Interests In 1989, the Guatemalan Congress adopted the Protected Areas Law and created the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) with the goal of guaranteeing the protection [...]
Women and the agrarian resistance in Guatemala By: Mélisande Séguin, Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) Cooperant CCDA women activists, planning and organizing. Land dispossession as a historical root of the latest wave of evictions Guatemala has one of the most unequal land distribution and titling systems in [...]
Short film Pacoxom 2024 and World Day for International Justice By: Romi Fischer-Schmidt, New Hope Foundation Cooperant This short film, titled Pacoxom 2024 was shot during this year’s commemoration of the Rio Negro Massacres at Pacoxom. I created it for the New Hope Foundation (FNE) and for BTS. Special thanks [...]
Ch’eken and other turning points of the rainy season’s arrival The rains have arrived and transformed Rabinal into a misty, lush and green landscape. By: Romi Fischer-Schmidt, New Hope Foundation cooperant Late on Monday June 10th, around 10 p.m., I received a call from Luis Tecú, the new [...]
Ten months after forced eviction, the Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol community is still landless By Mélisande Séguin, CCDA Cooperant On August 9, 2023, police and private security forces attacked the Xinka community of Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol and ruthlessly burnt people’s homes and possessions under the supervision of state authorities. Ten months [...]
